Bettman and the league are idiots who gave the players way too much money and expanded into way too many cities. Phoenix needed an NHL team?! One team in Florida maybe, but two? Nashville?!! Another problem the league has: teams competing for high draft picks and making no real attempt to get better (Panthers, Blue Jackets, Penguins, etc.).

Its all the players, owners fault and also the states did not generate money for their teams so thats why some of them are close to being bankrupt or whatever. but the people that are suffering from this are the canadians.

its just the states....ottawa has one of the best and most exciting teams in the league and there bankrupt...i blame the players more than the owners....your paying crybabies like jagre 9 mill a year for just whining alone.....whats wrong with having something like a 2 million dollar salary base than you can earn like another 3 or 5 million in incintives?...players wont do that cause they would have to actullay EARN all there money

The owners didn't have to give out contracts as large as they did in may cases. Doubling a players salary? He better have scored 40-50 goals the last four seasons.....

The league shouldn't have expanded into areas where there is no interest in the sport. That was just plain stupid. Most of the teams are in the States and most of them do fairly well except for those that were poorly thought-out.